Many local residents have now had their last garden waste collection for nearly five months.
This follows Cheshire East Council's announcement that green wheelie bins, which are normally emptied every two weeks, will not be collected between 18th November 2013 and 14th March 2014.
The decision was taken in order to save money which the Council said would be spent on improving winter services such as repairing potholes and gritting our roads.
Speaking in October, Councillor David Topping, Cheshire East Council Cabinet member in charge of the environment, said: "As only 10 per cent of garden waste is collected in the winter, there is far less need for this service then. This measure will save money and allow the Council to focus its resources where they are most needed.
"The changes outlined will save the authority more than £1m over the next four years. That is a lot of money – which the Council will now be able to use to focus on improving key winter services that really matter to local people, such as repairing potholes and gritting our roads."
However, we have since received conflicting information because according to an officer at Cheshire East Council there is no direct link between cutting the garden waste collections and additional funds being made available for other services.
Local resident Alec Finney submitted a complaint to CEC about the service being cut for nearly five months and asked "How do I know that the saved money will be transferred to the pothole budget?"
The CEC Officer responded "I'm afraid there's confusion regarding the transferring of savings to other budget areas. There is no direct link between the garden waste suspension period and additional funds being made available for other services. The Recycling and Waste Service were given a reduced budget for the year 13-14 and were required to make savings which resulted in the garden waste suspension period.
"I'm also afraid that this decision will not be reversed. However, the length and commencement of future suspensions may be reconsidered for future years."
Willaston and Rope Ward Councillor Brian Silvester called in the Local Government Ombudsman over the curtailment of the green waste bin collection for 4 months but the investigator refused to investigate because, in her view, Cllr Silvester had complained as a councillor and the Ombudsman cannot therefore investigate.
Cllr Silvester said,"I am surprised that the Ombudsman will not investigate my complaint because I am a councillor. It seems wrong that a councillor is unable to make a complaint as a resident, like anybody else. In these cases, councillors are being treated as second class citizens.
"However, all is not lost. I have had many communications from across the whole of Cheshire East. There is lot of anger about the way this decision has been taken and the timing of it. Several residents have volunteered to make their own complaint to the Ombudsman and I am sure that this will happen quickly."
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